THE AUDACIOUS PROJECT NAMES NEW GRANTEE COHORT CATALYZING GLOBAL CHANGE

More than one billion dollars in catalytic funding raised for 2025 Audacious Grantees to transform pressing global needs

NEW YORK, Feb. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, The Audacious Project, the collaborative funding platform within TED, announced its newest cohort of grantee innovators addressing some of humanity's biggest challenges. The Audacious donor community committed $1.03 billion to this year's grantees, the largest raise to date and a significant infusion of capital into visionary ideas to shift systems and sectors. These projects will advance medical breakthroughs and reproductive care, improve climate health, spur economic growth and strengthen education systems around the world.

Every year, The Audacious Project invites visionary social entrepreneurs to imagine their boldest ideas for addressing the world's most pressing issues, and then works in partnership to transform their ambitions into actionable, multi-year plans. Since its founding in 2018, the Audacious community has committed $4.6 billion for 70 projects working across breakthrough science, climate, health, social justice and education. The impact of Audacious goes far beyond the money raised for each cohort; Audacious grantees have subsequently leveraged an additional $3 billion from other funders, catalyzing $7.6 billion in total funding for the projects.

"This year's cohort represents what happens when humanity's toughest problems are met with courage. It is also a declaration of what they imagine is still entirely possible. Whether they are charting paths to plastic‑free oceans, unlocking access to life-saving health services for women and girls globally or harnessing AI to prevent disease, the breadth and depth of these interventions is awe-inducing," said Anna Verghese, executive director of The Audacious Project. "We're humbled yet again by what the Audacious community makes possible."

"Daring ideas matter most when they become achievable," said Chris Anderson, founder of The Audacious Project and TED chairman. "These grantees prove what's possible when we come together to dream big, take risks and build a more hopeful future."

Audacious has also launched a reinvestment pilot program, providing a secondary funding round to previous grantees that demonstrated significant results after their initial five years of funding. The Audacious donor community has committed nearly $50 million in total follow-on funding to three selected organizations to scale their work and sustain their impact. This pilot demonstrates a commitment to flexible, long-term funding — and to the value of providing a longer runway for organizations creating transformational change.

Through its unique model, The Audacious Project brings together dedicated philanthropists to give in community with one another, allowing funders to connect with groundbreaking projects that aim to solve humanity's biggest challenges.

"The world's problems are huge—they require audacious thinking and people willing to work together to solve them. I feel a real responsibility to give back and to support some of these immense issues through philanthropy. The Audacious Project helps me do that by connecting me with organizations that have big, bold plans and the vision to actually pull them off," said Reed Hastings, Founder and Chairman of the Board, Netflix and CEO of Powder.org. "What makes it unique is how it brings together diverse partners with serious, flexible capital to back the most visionary leaders out there. It's an honor to be part of this community driving real systemic change."

"Audacious brings together a community of grantees and funders who are optimistic, hopeful and believe that change is possible. As funders, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of philanthropic dollars, and to back grantee-led solutions to the problems that communities are facing. Amazing leaders deserve to be supported – and it's our job to support them as future leaders of the world," said Tegan Acton, founder and principal of Wildcard Giving.

The Audacious Project 2025 grantees include:

• Arc Institute, led by Silvana Konermann: Creating the world's first high-utility virtual cell, an AI model accelerating medical breakthroughs toward cures for intractable diseases
• Braven, led by Aimée Eubanks Davis: Closing the college-to-career gap for low-income and first-generation college students in the United States by partnering with higher education and employers to prepare students for the workforce
• Imagine Worldwide, led by Rapelang Rabana: Scaling solar-powered, offline edtech learning solutions to reach students across Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tanzania
• Ipas, led by Anu Kumar and Jean-Claude Mulunda: Preventing unsafe abortion in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia by removing systemic, legal and social barriers to care
• Plastic Solutions Fund, led by Nicky Davies: Reducing plastic production and fostering a reuse-based, circular economy in partnership with the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement
• Pure Earth, led by Drew McCartor: Protecting children from lead poisoning by helping 22 low- and middle-income countries implement proven approaches to prevent exposure and reduce health risks
• Destination: Home's "Right at Home," led by Jennifer Loving: Stopping homelessness before it starts by scaling a proven prevention model across the country, redefining how the United States responds to the housing affordability crisis
• Solutions for Our Climate, led by Joojin Kim: Transforming maritime trade into an industry that drives global decarbonization
• The Ocean Cleanup, led by Boyan Slat: Stopping plastic from flowing into our oceans by intercepting and removing the waste accumulating in rivers
• Tiko, led by Serah Malaba: Empowering and protecting girls across Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Burkina Faso from HIV, unintended pregnancy and sexual violence by connecting them to free care

The Audacious Project reinvestment organizations include:

• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), led by Rebecca Firth: Establishing an Open Mapping Marketplace that connects trained and certified local mappers with decision-makers needing high-quality geospatial data to strengthen livelihoods and planning
• Last Mile Health, led by Lisha McCormick: Saving the lives of women and children across the African continent by partnering with governments to train community health workers to deliver cost-effective primary care and transform health financing
• Thorn, led by Julie Cordua: Hardwiring child safety into the fabric of the internet by equipping technology companies and law enforcement with AI-driven tools to combat child sexual abuse, protect children at scale and outpace emerging threats

Audacious grantees have transformed systems worldwide, enrolling millions of girls in school and helping millions of people lift themselves out of ultra-poverty. With support from Audacious, projects have driven medical breakthroughs — developing the world's first computer-generated protein medicine, revolutionizing COVID-19 response systems and repurposing medicines to cure rare diseases. From creating the first whale language model to transforming how we track methane emissions and combat climate change, year after year, these projects redefine what is achievable in our world.

To learn more about each grantee and their Audacious idea, please visit www.audaciousproject.org.

ABOUT THE AUDACIOUS PROJECT

Launched in 2018, The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative dedicated to supporting bold ideas with the potential to change the world. Housed at TED and powered by the belief that ideas change everything, Audacious leverages a global network of visionary social entrepreneurs and funders to support bold solutions to the world's most urgent challenges. Audacious is issue-agnostic and supports grantees to balance audacity and achievability for lasting, systemic impact. Since 2018, Audacious has helped to catalyze more than $7 billion for 70 projects, demonstrating what's possible when we dream bigger and act together. The funding community includes respected donors and philanthropists including ELMA Philanthropies, Emerson Collective, MacKenzie Scott, Pivotal Ventures, Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin, Skoll Foundation, Valhalla Foundation and more. 

ABOUT TED

TED is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to discovering, debating and spreading ideas that spark conversation, deepen understanding and drive meaningful change. Our organization is devoted to curiosity, reason, wonder and the pursuit of knowledge — without an agenda. TED began in 1984 as a conference about Technology, Entertainment and Design, and today it spans worldwide communities and initiatives exploring everything from science and business to education, arts and global issues. TED's format has expanded to include original podcasts, short video series, animated educational lessons (TED-Ed), independently run TEDx events, the multi-billion dollar collaborative philanthropic initiative The Audacious Project; and the climate solution initiative, Countdown. View a full list of TED's many programs and initiatives.

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